Sad story. They better get their checkbook. We (active duty and veterans) call Tripler "Crippler" over here. Two of my kids were born there. Sad to see nothing has changed in years.
Posted on: Thursday, August 2, 2007
Suicide plea failed at Tripler; veteran dead By Rob Perez
Advertiser Staff Writer
An Air Force veteran who told Tripler Army Medical Center personnel that he intended to jump to his death from a top floor of the hospital and then did so days later would still be alive if Tripler heeded his pleas to be admitted for severe depression, his widow believes.
Twice before Robert Roth, 50, jumped to his death Jan. 2, he went to Tripler's emergency room seeking to be admitted, even telling medical personnel the day after Christmas that he planned to commit suicide by jumping from the top floor of the hospital, according to an April 4 Army investigative report into his death. During his other visit, on Dec. 16, he told medical personnel he planned to jump off a cliff in Makapu'u, the records show.
The Roth case may add to an ongoing national controversy on the quality of mental-healthcare for military members and their families.
The military's mental-healthcare network is under tremendous strain because of the Iraq war — many soldiers are returning with psychological problems — and because of a shortage of professionals to treat them.
Roth, who suffered from a bipolar mood disorder, had a long history of depression and was on antidepressant medication at the time of his death. He jumped from a 10th-floor balcony not far from where he worked as a ward clerk at Tripler. He served 20 years in the Air Force as a medic and paramedic and retired in 2002, suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
On his first ER visit, he waited more than five hours and never saw a psychiatrist, only a physician training to be one, and on his second visit, he waited about three hours and left angry — and against the wishes of medical personnel — because he hadn't been seen yet by a physician, according to his medical records, the investigative report and attorney Rick Fried, who represents the widow.
The reason for the long wait on Dec. 26 was related to staffing: Roth was told that because of the holiday, only one doctor was on duty in the ER.
"Patient feels he's been blown off and wants to get admitted to hospital," an ER nurse wrote in Roth's records.
Although Roth had been seeing a Tripler psychiatrist since 2005, going every two or three weeks, his medical records provide no indication that ER personnel consulted with the psychiatrist on either visit, nor do the records indicate she was aware that he had been speaking about committing suicide when she saw him a day or two after each visit.
The records and investigative report also hint at other gaps in the system. Medical personnel, for instance, could not explain to investigators why Roth was able to drive away Dec. 26 because, the report said, his car keys should have been held by the ER staff. The investigators also were told that Tripler's ER did not have any written standard operating procedures for handling patients with suicidal intentions.
On both visits, Roth brought a small bag packed with personal belongings because he expected to be admitted, Fried said.
Fried said his client, Satsuki Roth, 47, blames Tripler for her husband's death.
"There were a lot of chances to save this guy," Fried said. "She feels had Tripler done their job, her husband would be alive today."
Fried said she did not want to speak to reporters about the case.
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